The musings of a poet, blogger, activist and social and political commentator with a 35 year history of depression. Always outspoken, always controversial, sometimes dark, sometimes humourous.
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Friday, 2 June 2017

On the
26th May I complained about the the obvious bias against Jeremy Corbyn shown by Andrew Neil in the interview that evening.Here's what I wrote on the
complaint form:

Andrew Neil spent approximately 15 minutes of
an approximately 27 minute interview fixated on Jeremy Corbyn's past alleged
support of the IRA followed by 4 minutes on defence policy which left very
little time for the coverage of the vast array of other Labour manifesto
policies.8 minutes of coverage on
nationally important election issues is not enough for the electorate to base
their decision on or enough for people to base their opinion of Jeremy Corbyn's
attitudes to those issues.

Mr Neil spent more time badgering or
interrupting Mr Corbyn than letting him answer the questions raised.In contrast, Mr Neil gave Theresa May a
relatively easy ride in his recent interview with the Prime Minister which
shows not only extreme bias against Mr Corbyn but also a abject dereliction of
his and the BBC's duty to journalistic neutrality.

Mr Neil should be censured and the BBC should
reflect on its duty to journalistic neutrality as a publically funded public
service broadcaster.

I
expected the usual crap response…and the BBC complaints department did not
disappoint.

Here’s
the full text of the e-mail I received from the BBC regarding my complaint
against Andrew Neil Interview
programme on BBC1:

BBC
Complaints - Case Number CAS-4389771-VXV641

Dear Mr Cook

Thanks for contacting us.

The Andrew Neil Interviews have provided viewers with the opportunity to see
detailed scrutiny of the policies and track record of the party leaders ahead
of the General Election. The interviews have been robust and challenging, but
have allowed the leaders time to respond in detail to some of the big questions
facing their campaign and concerning their ability to lead the country.

Just as Jeremy Corbyn faced difficult questions over defence and security, his
spending plans, immigration and his leadership of the party, Theresa May faced
difficult questions over social care, the winter fuel allowance, her
government’s failure to meet its promises on immigration and the deficit, and
her ability to account for spending promises on public services. In both tone
and content, Andrew’s treatment of Mr Corbyn was fair, respectful and entirely
consistent with his treatment of the other leaders in this series. He will
continue to apply the same level of scrutiny to all his interviews.

This is
total crap as Andrew Neil didn’t give Theresa May half as hard a ride in her
interview as he gave Corbyn in his.I
can say this as someone who likes Corbyn but doesn’t love him as much as some
of the Labour members/supporters do.There are some things that disappoint me about Corbyn and some views that
we will potentially disagree on.I’m
also a strong advocate for a non-partisan political structure to our Parliament
which would put me at odds with many Left-wingers and Right-wingers alike.

This is
another attempt by the BBC to look politically neutral despite the fact that
many of their senior current affairs presenters, reporters and editorial staff
are, in fact, Conservative Party supporters and have voiced very anti-Labour
sentiments (for one example, see the photo below)

With so
many Tories in high-ranking and/or high-visibility roles in the BBC (see the
photo below), can they really be unbiased in their interviewing and news
coverage?

Even
with the best will in the world many people’s political views leech into their
discussions and the members of the media are no different.Perhaps media outlets need to employ people
of different political beliefs based on a quota system that needs to reflect
the range of political views in the general population.This would, of course, mean that people on
the lower end of the socioeconomic scale need to have access to free education
so that they may reach the educational level to access such careers.

Feel
free to use the case number above to refer to if you’d like to make further
complaints.

I also complained to the BBC re News at One similar bias against Mr Corbyn. I got the same answer back from them. I have written another letter of complaint and if the answer is the same rhetoric I will continue to complain. I'm a SNP voter. But am annoyed by the Public Broadcaster using my money to creating Bias/unrepresentative News reporting. Angry Glasgow

I also complained to the BBC re News at One similar bias against Mr Corbyn. I got the same answer back from them. I have written another letter of complaint and if the answer is the same rhetoric I will continue to complain. I'm a SNP voter. But am annoyed by the Public Broadcaster using my money to creating Bias/unrepresentative News reporting. Angry Glasgow